Last Call to Dance
by Animangod
Summary: KuroFai. Kurogane and Fai dance knowing their time is limited.


The room was lit purely by the crystalline chandelier hanging above and the dim red glow that sifted through the window panels. The room had once been a magnificent ballroom, and as the days were numbered, two lovers chose to use it as such.

It wasn't with the best of graces they moved their feet at first, before finding their own rhythm. What did it matter if their moves were perfect or not for soon it would all be over. In the final moments, they were allowed, all that mattered was spending it side by side with each other. Unshed tears gathered at the edges of four separate eyes. A device echoed music into the otherwise empty room, the sound bouncing off the still standing walls.

Disfigured and damaged from the first attack, a hand with two fingers left, brutal scarring and barely able to hear, Kurogane could just barely make out the tune echoing in what would be their death chambers. Fai had made it out better; blinded in one eyes a few torn ligaments in his back and leg. Kurogane had used his body to spare Fai the worst of the devastation.

The had lives before this, young and promising , lives of the performing arts. Fai did ballet and gymnastics; he had hoped to become good enough to wing a medal at the Olympics. His lover, a local fireman. Rescuing kittens by sunlight and lost souls by firelight. It ran in his blood as it ran in his father's; to help the people with their strength. But now … strength alone could not stand opposition to the forces unleashed. The shelter where his mother offered services to the ill - shrapnel of the bomb that went off and decimated the area was all that was left.

It wouldn't be long now until humanity was gone, destroyed by itself. Whatever didn't die in the immediate aftermath, there was radiation and starvation to die from as well.

Fai began to sing the lyrics into Kurogane's better hearing ear as they danced across the floor.

"Sweet little words made for silence not talk. Young hearts for love not heartache."

Kurogane slowly twirled Fai, spinning him out before pulling him back in.

"Dark hair for catching the wind, not to rain sight of a cold world."

Steps more suited for a waltz, foreheads just barely touching.

"Kiss… while your lips are still red. While he's still silent, rest…"

Lips lingered before one foot stumbled caught from falling by those same supportive arms that he'd held him so closely to keep him from the path of harm.

"While bosom is still untouched, unveiled…"

The tears made seeing harder but he smiled at least.

"While the hand still without a tool. Drown into eyes while they're so blind."

A loving gaze hazy and blinded by those tears refusing to fall. A hand leading only up the stairs of the ballroom, partner following.

"Love wile the night still hides the withering dawn…"

The wooden terrace, long ago used for spotlighting now held the two as they moved themselves up there. Letting their lips meet briefly as Fai paused with the song before words were sung into the man's ear like before, steps taken slow and in each other's arms.

"First day of love never comes back a passionate hour's never a wasted one."

Bodies moved together in synchronicity a harmony of air and water.

"The violing a poet's hand. Every thawing heart plays your theme with care."

There was a guard railing and they paused leaning against it. Fai's leaning into that larger chest, using him shirt to rid the teardrops clouding his sight. Kurogane used the pad of a finger to wipe his from his eyes.

Kurogane stole a kiss from rosy lips. Fai's lips still managing to taste sweet. Quiet settled between them briefly and in that moment, it was the happiest they'd been in what felt like forever minus a day - there had still been days of soberness that fell upon them as the moments passed.

Kurogane could still recall a time when blondes climbed trees to rescue their cat but 'accidentally' knocked the ladder over and got stuck. He could still recall the phone call they had received that day stating it was no emergency but a civilian and his cat were stuck up a tree and the boss had asked him to take Li there - good training exercise, she had reasoned for their newest recruit.

They pulled up at the residence, one of the nicer homes in the neighborhood. Then again, the father could afford it. An Indian by the name of Shura with his wife Shahi and biological child Ashura, and his two adopted sons Yuui and Fai.

Fai was sitting on a branch, one arm securing his cat the other hanging on so they didn't fall. Kurogane instructed Li to rescue the feline first for its owner, and he'd retrieve the fluff brain once he had the cat secure for the human up a tree.

He could still remember as Li climbed down holding the cat - Arthur was its name. Li referred to it as the nippy one. Kurogane climbed up for the human who sat on a branch still hanging on.

"Good thing people like you have nine lives."

Fai grinned, hearing the humor, "Lucky no one is off making fires for you to fight so a big strong fireman could come to my rescue."

"Che, come on, let's get you down from here."

The man, a blond he word soon have multiple like occasions with, didn't protest or struggle as Kurogane reached to pick him out of the tree and carried down the ladder; instead, he made himself rather comfortable there as he was carried down until Kurogane set him down safely, keeping things professional.

"Thank you two for your help today," Fai said smiling at Kurogane before taking Arthur back from Li who was glad for it as it tried chewing its way to his glove.

"Just part of the job," Kurogane said.

Fai took Arthur and put him back inside the house, before coming over again and smiling, "What station are you two from? I'd like to thank you all properly."

"Ah that's really not necessary."

"But you two rescued us from the misfortune of sitting up there for hours before being laughed at and harangued by my brother until he decided to put the ladder up so I'd like to thank you both properly. Please?"

"It's Station 714." Li had spoken up. After that occasion, after the two men had left, there would be numerous more occasions where Fai had gotten stuck in a tree and would need rescuing, many more occasions where he would visit their Station and bring a basket of home made goodies. And even more times where he had tried getting his rescuer to date him. That was many years ago, at a time where the only thing they would have had to worry about going off would have been firecrackers.

"Kiss… while your lips are still red. While he's still silent, rest…"

A gentle pull and they're back in the moment, no longer leaning on the railing but feet taking them into a fluid movement.

"While bosom is still untouched, unveiled…"

They danced together, their bodies a breath apart from touching in anywhere their hands weren't touching.

"While the hand still without a tool. Drown into eyes while they're so blind."

Eyes closed in the close proximity, movement lead them from the railing to the center of the balcony like area.

"Love while the night still hides the withering dawn…"

Hips slowed and one head tilted up focusing and the other tilts with a moment of confusion.

"Can you hear that?" Kurogane interrupted.

"Hear what-?"

"It sounds like… someone's whistling…"

Fai trembled slowly before he moved his hand and placed a finger to Kurogane's lips. "Forget that noise. Only listen to mine." Fai smiled, even as fresh tears gathered at his eyes and he had to catch back up with the song lyrics.

"…still untouched, unveiled…"

His hand returned to its place as the dancing continued.

"While the hand still without a tool. Drown into eyes while they're so blind."

The whistle pitch grew louder and the walls began to shake. Fai closed his good eye so instead he could hear the man's heartbeat in those final moments. "I love you," he spoke softly. He was pulled in tighter and closer, words whispered back, "I know."

"Love while the night still hides the withering dawn."

The music device made a squealing noise as it continued to play on what contents had been stored on it. The radiation would eat out or continue to power the battery for a very long time. The life that had been there moments before was extinguished, like a candle's flame, a metal creation of man's had come from above. As it touched down, death was almost instantaneous.

Song: While Your Lips Are Still Red by Nightwish

Inspired by: Imagine your OTP slow dancing to a romantic love song...During the Apocalypse ^#^


End file.
